Having already done time in prison, Max Butler - aka Max Vision - went to great extremes to cloak his new and allegedly-illegal activities from prying eyes. But court documents filed in a case charging him with five new counts of fraud suggest that despite the care he took, much of his undoing came at his own hands - and the hands of associates he trusted the most.

Microsoft today lost the majority of its appeal against the European Commission anti-trust decision. Microsoft will have to open up access to its server protocols, continue selling a version of its Windows operating system without Media Player, and pay a fine of at least €497m.

NASA has confirmed the launch date for Dawn, its mission to the asteroid belt. The space agency is aiming for a launch window that opens at 07:25 (EDT) on 26 September, and closes again 29 minutes later.

The UK's Data Protection Act (DPA) does not implement European law properly, according to the European Commission which is investigating problems in the UK's implementation of 11 of the Data Protection Directive's articles, almost a third of the entire directive.

Security pros need to get more proactive about dealing with threats and adopt strategies to persuade their colleagues to take on security spending as part of their projects, according to analysts Gartner.

In between sulking with Nokia and billing customers for imaginary debts, Orange UK has changed the voice used for its menus and automated systems, opting for something a little more matey and a little less BBC.

Astronomers using NASA's Swift and Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellites have discovered a stellar skeleton, a remnant of a dying star that is being consumed by its pulsar companion. So little of the star's original material is left that it now barely masses more than Jupiter.

Reports from Brussels suggest that European and national officials are beginning to acknowledge the lack of any firm consensus regarding the funding - or even the need - for the planned Galileo Europe sat nav constellation.

Apple has finally confirmed that O2 has won the exclusive rights to carry the iPhone over its UK network from next month. Steve Jobs made the announcement at its flagship UK store in London this morning.

With the dash for growth over, UK mobile operator 3 is settling into the business of consolidation. 3 has opened 200 new UK stores in the past year, but there's one slight problem - they're a bit blokey.

AMD's upcoming Phenom desktop processor family will include CPUs with three processing cores, the chip maker announced last night. Now that dual-core products are commonplace and four-core chips becoming more so, why not tri-core too?

British boffins are developing a mechanical, mole-like robotic system which could dig its way through debris or rubble. The technology could be used to build burrowing rescue machines able to retrieve people trapped by collapsing buildings or tunnels.

Several times a year I receive emails congratulating me on my age from websites. It's very thoughtful of them to do this - but then it's not often they get the opportunity to market to a genuine silver surfer, like me. You see, I'm actually 112 years old. Or 103. Or 107. And several ages in-between.

British gamers hoping to get their paws on a special edition of the upcoming Halo 3 are set for a big disappointment. Microsoft has confirmed that all Legendary Edition versions of the game allocated to the UK have already been snapped-up through pre-order, and almost all its Limited Edition version reserves have been reserved too.

In a recent article we reported on how social networking tools were having an increasing impact on corporate life - for better or worse! No doubt the debate will run and run, and no doubt, like so many new technologies (the Web, anyone?), we shall arrive at a happy medium where such tools become part of the business fabric.

Networking giant Cisco Systems has teamed up with the UK's Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the hope of luring young whippersnappers away from the clutches of Media Studies and into the loving arms of the IT profession.

Intel will ship 'Montevina', the next major incarnation of its Centrino platform, in May 2008, CEO Paul Otellini let slip today. He also announced a 25W version of the platform's Core 2 Duo processors, based on the 45nm 'Penryn' design.

NEC of America is rolling out the first product based on its HYDRAstor grid storage platform this week, offering a high-tier system for businesses looking to cram backup and archive data into a single system.

Nevada Civil Air Patrol has "downgraded" the search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett, suspending aerial missions while keeping two aircraft on standby to follow up any possible leads as to his whereabouts.

A Florida university student who overran his allotted time while quizzing John Kerry on matters of national import at a forum graced by the Democrat senator for Massachusetts received a solid tasering for his trouble, quickly followed by the now-obligatory YouTube martydom:

Any business that takes card payments from residents of California will face strict new duties on the security of card data under proposals that are just a signature away from becoming law. A breach would trigger unprecedented reimbursement provisions.

Today is the ninth anniversary of ICANN as the master of the internet universe, and on that note, the controversial organization that controls the technical standards of internet seems to merit a salutation of sorts.

T-Mobile USA has gobbled up SunCom Wireless, looking to expand the country's fourth-leading cell phone network into Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the heart of the Southeastern United States. You know, the former confederacy.

The Peruvian authorities are warning people not to visit the site of a suspected meteorite strike in a remote area of the Andes after 600 people succumbed to "headaches, vomiting and nausea" caused by inhaling gas at the scene.